Occupy Wall Street: A Look Back at U.S Protest Movements Since 2000

A woman and her child take part in an Occupy Wall Street demonstration in Foley Square in New York City, October 5, 2011. Photo: Reuters

The Occupy Wall Steet movement has received constant media coverage and thousands of supporters since beginning on Sept. 17 at New York City's Zuccotti Park. The leaderless resistance, which has spread to dozens of other cities across the nation, is a protest of the U.S. financial systems and the massive financial loopholes and corporate policies that the group argues is responsible for damaging the U.S. policy and creating record levels of income inequality.

Last week, more than two thousand people, including representatives from major unions such as the National Nurses Union, Service Employees International and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), joined a march across lower Manhattan. Similarly, there have been massive sit-ins in both Atlanta and Washington, D.C. related the movement as well.

As Occupy Wall Street protestors prepare to trek to New York City's Upper East Side today to picket the homes of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch and JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon -- in an avent dubbed the Millionaires March -- we took a look at other protest movements within the last decade that have demonstrated that Americans are certainly unafraid of speaking up for what they believe in.

In an attempt to prevent the person from committing suicide, Avleen K. Mokha in her Facebook post wrote, "Don't go ahead with this tonight. There's more in life to look forward to beyond tonight. Please be there to see it."